Sunday in Buenos Aires

In 2,5 months Buenos Aires has become a beloved home town to us. Before coming here we had no idea if we would like it or not, but the experience of living in Buenos Aires has been a very positive one. Among the many things that make Buenos Aires a pleasant place to live are the abundance of trees and parks, the beautiful architecture, well functioning public transportation and cheap taxis, a lively cultural atmosphere, possibility to almost any kind of a hobby and the coffee places / restaurants / bars in every street corner. You’ll never go hungry nor thirsty here (in the end we did find several good places to eat, though I still insist that it’s not that easy to find good food in Argentina). Mostly I felt also safe, despite opposite reports on safety. There are many neighborhoods, but at least the neighborhood of Palermo, where we lived, is as safe as you can expect from a big city. The only thing Buenos Aires is lacking is the beach. As coastal person from a port town I miss the ocean and the beach.

When we planned our trip we decided to divide our time mainly between two countries: Argentina and Brazil. It’s a weird feeling to be wanting to stay and go at the same time: maybe, if we could replan everything we would just visit Brazil and come back to Buenos Aires. Then again Brazil is another fascinating country and it would be crazy to pass the opportunity to go. And I do want to go. I just don’t want to leave Buenos Aires. Crazy, huh?

There is no other option than to return to Buenos Aires. Not this year, since there are so many other places we want to see as well, but later, another year. Unless we find yet another place as cool or cooler (and I don’t mean the temperature..) than Buenos Aires. But as for potential new home countries and home towns, Buenos Aires and Argentina are definitely strong candidates.

One of the coolest things in Buenos Aires is the every Sunday event that takes place in Recoleta, in the park next to the Recoleta cemetery and the Design Mall. The Porteños gather there to drink mate, listen to bands playing rock, reggae or Cuban rumba, to watch the acrobats practice or just to hang out. There are also capoiera and tango performances and a huge handicraft market selling art, junk, hippy clothes and mate cups. Whole families come here for picknick and there’s also entertainment for children. We have come here several times during our stay.

This video clip is my fairwell to the lovely and lovable city of Buenos Aires and its friendly people. Next time I will be writing from Rio de Janeiro.

Interview with a famous tango dancer

Sometimes you get lucky when you’re looking for something special. I was looking for a tango professional, who could give me an insider interview on the tango culture of Buenos Aires. One day at a Brazilian dance school, where I was training I overheard two teachers talking about tango. The other one wanted to broaden his horizons by learning to teach tango in addition to the styles he was teaching already and it happened that the other teacher new where he should ask about professional training.

The reason why she knew all this was because she was the daughter of a tango dancer, and not just any dancer, but one of the more famous ones in this country, Graciela Cabrera.

Here some history for you:

Graciela Cabrera started her carreer at age of 15 in 1976. She soon got permanent employment in the “Argentina Tango Show” and toured with them also in Japan. She also worked as a dancer in two other dance troops, “Ballet de Juan Carlos Copes y María Nieves” and “Ballet de Gloria y Eduardo”, until in 1982 she started her own company “Graciela Cabrera y su Ballet”. With her own dance company she became famous in the tango bars and theaters of Buenos Aires, choreographing shows to several places and performing as the leading lady.

In 1984 she got a job in a new TV show called “Grandes Valores del Tango”. The show was about tango songs and performers and it had dancers performing to accompany the music. Graciela and her dance company performed in the show every week for six years and even though the show finished in 1990 many people still remember her from it. So we’re talking about a pretty famous person here! From YouTube I found a 20 year anniversary show of “Grandes Valores del Tango”, check it out from the link.

During her carreer Graciela also worked in other programs and toured both as a solo dancer or guest artist and with her dance company in several countries. Her last TV performance was in 2005 in a program called the “Copetín de Tango”, where she again acted as the choreographer and leading dancer for the dance sequences. The man dancing with her in the videos is her brother José Luis Cabrera, who has been her dance partner in many occations during her carreer:

On top of being famous, Graciela is a wonderful personality! She gave me her time to tell me about what’s it like to be a tango professional, how tango has changed during her career of 35 years and how you become a tango dancer. It was all most interesting! It will take me some time to edit the video, so here some perks to watch while I’m working with the interview…

A few years ago Graciela decided it’s time to leave the scenes and now she dedicates herself to teaching. She loves teaching and -believe it or not – it is possible to get a private lesson with her! She told me that the usual tariff for a private class is 50USD per person or 100USD a couple. This price range would apply also to most other teachers. For more information on Graciela and to get in touch with her visit her website: http://www.gracielacabrera.com.ar/

Tango and Gaucho dance in the colorful La Boca

One of my favorite city parts in Buenos Aires (and probably that of many other people) is La Boca, famous for the Boca Juniors football club and its colorful buildings. La Boca is the most photographed area of Buenos Aires and rightfully so. Outside the touristy area it’s a bit dodgy working class neighborhood and ranked dangerous, especially after dark. But there is something very charming in the old buildings that are its signature landscape. It’s definitely a must-see place, when in Buenos Aires!

We actually went there already on our first week in Buenos Aires and this is what it looks like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tourist area of La Boca is full of bars and restaurants and in many of them there is dance show displaying tango and gaucho dance, which in some ways reminds me of the Spanish Sevillanas:

 

Beach life in Buenos Aires

As I mentioned before there is no beach in Buenos Aires. In quest of water and swimming we started to explore our options and discover there are only two open air swimming places within the city. The other one, Club de Amigos, is a private sports club which used to sell day entrancies, but when we got there the gatekeeper informed us that it’s members only now. To become a member you would have to pay an annual membership fee, which was something like 230 euros. We opted against that and went to the next address further north.

Since Parque Norte is the only public swimming hole for all of Buenos Aires, you can imagine the amount of people there. The entrance cost us 35 pesos (about 5 euros) per person, which is a reasonable sum for a day’s swim. What happened after the entrance was something I haven’t experienced before: before you were allowed to go to the pool area you had to go through a health check –something quite sensible considering that if all of Buenos Aires goes swimming in Parque Norte it’s a great place for an epidemic to start… Without the health certificate you are not allowed to the pool area.

Approaching the health check I was I bit nervous what would happen there, if I would be asked to bend over or something… I saw the nurses checking girls’ long hair and some people got their skin checked. I was asked only to show my feet and I was cleared. In the men’s side they had a stricter regime: first of all, all the guys had to shower before they were allowed to the health check area. There they were lined up and their armpits, hands, feet and genetalia were inspected. Just a warning for anybody wanting to go swimming in Parque Norte…

When we got to the pool area there were so many people that you could hardly find a spot on the grass and also in the water there were people side by side. I guess everybody who couldn’t afford a summer home at Mar de Plata or other beach town, were at Parque Norte. There were literally thousands of people and three pools. The life guards vigilated everything from a little hill situated in the middle of the pool area and were regularly using their whistles to put the audience in order. The athmosphere was actually quite festive, because there was a DJ playing latest hits and remixes of all sorts: reggaetón, dancehall, dance, disco, house… A pretty good set I would say. We would have liked to stay longer, but unfortunately just 90 minutes after we had gotten in, the pool area was evacuated due to a thunder storm warning. We’ll have to go there again, despite of the intrusive health inspection… Well, I do understand it’s for everybody’s well-being.

Since Buenos Aires doesn’t have beach and only one or two options (depending on your financial situation) for sunbathing by a pool (unless you have your own), the Porteños use also parks. One of the most popular parks seems to be Parque las Heras in Palermo district, where you can find people who have clearly taken a professional attitude towards sunbathing. Some where so dark that you could call them black. There are free deck chairs you can borrow and a lot of people seem to come there for a whole day. To avoid a heat stroke there are showers sprinkling water mist. Our next apartment is located near the park so I guess we’ll have plenty of opportunities to join the dark-skinned men’s group talking politics and drinking mate from early morning until late night… 🙂

First impressions on Buenos Aires

What strikes me in Buenos Aires is how European it seems: this could be Paris, or Rome or Madrid. I guess the Argentinians and especially the Porteños (Buenos Aires people) would not be too offended by the comparison, since the Argentinos I’ve met before consider themselves half-European anyways.

What also gives the impression that we’re in Europe is that when people find out where I’m from they say: “Oh, that’s nice. Do you like Buenos Aires?” No one seems to think I’m far away from home (being from Europe), as if there is nothing special about being in the other side of the world.

Most Porteños look Spanish-Italian-French. The darker complexions you see here seem to belong to people from elsewhere: there is a significant population of Peruvians and Bolivians here. I guess a lot of the Chinese shopkeepers have lived here already for generations, but a lot of them sound like first generation immigrants judging by the accent. In a way it’s wrong to compare Buenos Aires with the cosmopolitan European cities I mentioned. At least in Paris you can see all the nationalities and complexions imaginable.

Anyways, from a traveler point-of-view Buenos Aires is an easy place to start exploring the South American continent: the culture shock will be minimal. The city is easy to navigate, there are plenty of elegant shops, cafes, restaurants and shopping malls to all tastes and budgets, public transportation is inexpensive and efficient, prepaid mobile phone sim-cards connect you with a local phone number in no-time and internet and WiFi connections are available almost everywhere. There are no third world country hassles like touts, hardly any beggars and no more safety issues than in a regular big city (in my opinion). There is a slum nearby the railroad, but who says you should go there?

If you speak Spanish you can start feeling at home almost immediately. What I like especially is the amount of parks and trees. Most streets are lined by trees and it gives the city a fresh feeling. Every few block there is a park and many them are huge in size. The only downside is that there are no beaches in Buenos Aires. If you want to go to the beach you have to travel.

From Argentina to Brazil

This is my first message from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I decided to leave the cold climate and come here to see, what’s it like to live in one of the hottest capitals of the world! An by this I don’t mean only weather, even though it is quite steamy right now, but I would dare to claim that the name Buenos Aires has a very special feel to it.

Tango, cafes, wide tree lined streets, green parks, friendly and beautiful people, great steaks and so-on… I’m definately impressed by this city!

I will be traveling around Argentina as well as living in Buenos Aires and from here on my journey continues to Brazil, another magical country.

I invite you to follow my steps discovering these countries. I may make a side trip to Uruguay and Paraguay as well.

Being a dance teacher and fitness instructor one of my main interests is to get to know local dances and find out what kind of fitness culture there is in each country. I will keep you posted on the foundings…